John Lawless was the man given the job of bringing the fastest team sport to a city dominted by football - did he succeed? The fact that this site exists and that the Storm are now in their 6th season suggests that yes he did. But, apart from being the man behind the formation of the Storm, John Lawless was also a talented player out on the ice. Although officially retired from playing when the Storm were formed, injuries in the Storm squad forced him out of retirement on several occassions, earning him the nickname of Boomerang at the Storm Shelter. In that first season (1995/96) he averaged almost two points (1.8) and two penalty minutes (1.93) a game. You might argue that the Storm that first year were such prolific scorers that these stats weren’t that impressive, indeed, other players were getting close to 4 points a game that year. But, they were players in their prime brought in for that job, John Lawless was first and foremost the coach and only came out of retirement to overcome a short bench. |
